An Access Point Name (APN) is conventionally a logical name referring to a gateway between a 3GPP mobile data communication network (such as, GPRS, EPC, or LTE (4G)) and another packet data network, generally the Internet.
An APN is further used for referring to a certain data service that a subscriber wishes to connect to. In this regard, 3GPP mobile data network operators provide APN configurations so that various APN values can be used to provide different kind of services to users (e.g. WAP, SMS, MMS, 4G internet service).
Each APN configuration is intended to be used for a certain data bearer service. For instance, an APN configuration may include a particular QoS value needed for VoIP or HD video streaming, while another QoS value needed for MMS.
Therefore, based on appropriate APN configuration by the network operators, basic, intermediate and advanced QoS level per data service may be provided for mobile users. Accordingly, switching from one APN configuration to other moves the data bearer from one QoS level to another or from one type of data plan to another, and eventually causes less or higher charge for the user.
Practically, multiple APN with different QoS are preconfigured by network operators, and then mapped to user's subscriptions (i.e. auto-configured or auto-detected for UEs).
Nevertheless, this approach presents substantial disadvantages, notably because of a lack of flexibility. In fact,                a subscribed QoS may not be suited for temporary on-demand needs. For example, if a user subscribed with a basic profile wants to enhance its packet rate for a given period (i.e. a week), it has to upgrade its profile on a monthly basis to achieve its temporary needs;        first subscription may take some time to be operational at operator-level.        
Moreover, these preconfigured APN values stand just for names with no explicit QoS semantics. In other words, APN configurations with preconfigured QoS value                are defined regardless the wishes, in terms of QoS value, of users to get data service on their UEs; and particularly        do not allow users to ask for explicit QoS values that would differ from subscription's ones at connection time. It results in that users are constrained by long periods to subscription with pre-defined QoS profiles.        